This invention pertains to a swab for cleaning. More particularly, the present invention pertains to a swab having a cleaning portion formed from a wrapped foam and a method for making swabs.
Swabs are used in all manners of cleaning. They range from common cotton tipped swabs that are used for person hygiene and care to use in numerous areas of technology and manufacture. Because of the compact and effective nature of these swabs, they have been adopted for use in such areas as the manufacture, testing, installation and maintenance of electrical components and more specifically connectors for use in the telecommunications industry.
One particular type of connector used in the telecommunications industry is for use in fiber optic cables. In splicing or connecting fiber optic cable sections to one another, a connector is used. A typical connector includes a male portion and a female portion (typically having a ferrule). During the manufacture of these cable sections, it is not unusual for pieces of manufacturing debris, such as pieces of fiber or fiber coating debris to be left within the ends of the connectors. It is also not unusual for light oils, such as fingerprint and other natural skin oils to be found on the parts in the ends of the connectors. As will be recognized by those skilled in the art, this debris and the oils can significantly degrade or prevent the transmission capabilities of the cables across the connectors.
Numerous types of cleaning implements have been used, with some degrees of success, to clean these particularly susceptible areas. It has, however, been observed that cleaning implements formed from non-particulate removing materials may not be acceptable for use in these connectors. Specifically, it has been found that particulates can become lodged in and around the connectors, thus adversely effecting the quality of the telecommunications signal.
In addition, it has been observed that these connectors can vary in configuration and size from one type to another. For example, the connector female end can be formed as having a flat inner end surface, a concave surface or a convex surface. In addition, they can be sized in a range from about 1.0 mm to about 2.5 mm. Additionally, connectors may be single, duplex, or contained in assemblies of multiples ranging from about 6 to 48 fibers. To this end, it has been found that regardless of the type of cleaning implement used, debris that settles into and around corners and oils that are present in these areas of the connector devices may not be able to be adequately removed.
Accordingly, there exists a need for a swab-type cleaning device that can be used for cleaning connectors. Desirably, such a device leaves little to no residue from the device within the connector. Most desirably, such a cleaning device can be readily fabricated in a variety of size and efficiently removes particulate contaminants and light oils (e.g., fingerprint oils) and can be used to clean around alignment pins and corner surfaces within the connector to remove essentially all manufacturing, field, maintenance, central office or other debris.